Review unknown code with static analysis

Code quality is not just for christmas, it is a daily part of the job. So, what do you do when you're handed with a five feet long pole a million lines of code that must be vetted ? You call static analysis to the rescue. During one hour, we'll be reviewing totally unknown code code : no name, no usage, not a clue. We'll apply a wide range of tools, reaching for anything that helps us understand the code and form an opinion on it. Can we break this mystery and learn how everyone else is looking at our code ?

Comments

A fast paced talk (perhaps a bit too fast, at least for me) which makes you think reason about code by purely looking at the results of a static code analyzer. Enough good insights and I liked the approach of involving the audience!

For complete transparency you should mention that you are behind the Exkat, or did I miss that part?

Great talk in many aspects. Your humor made it really easy to focus for the full 45 minutes (and a bit). The interactivity with the audience was awesome. Clear explanations of why certain practices in code could be considered good or bad (and no, I did not miss the disclaimer that this could not be inferred from usage count only).

I like this talk. It explains a lot about the process of static analysis by actually doing it together with the audience, which made this a very interactive session. I'm sure most audiences would enjoy this approach and Damien has enough humor and energy to pull it off.

The talk will probably be talked about and remembered most because the Damien went way over time and kept on going despite warnings, which is a shame because it deserves to be talked about on it's merits.

I feel the initial comment about "having to cram an hour and a half into a 45 minute talk" was spot on; it was too much content for the slot. Which is a shame, because everything that was said was very informative. More focus on half the content, and the other half as a link to read up on might have worked better here.